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Hello, Android: Introducing Google's Mobile Development Platform
Android is a new software toolkit for mobile phones, created by Google and the Open Handset Alliance. In a few years, it's expected to be found inside millions of cell phones and other mobile devices, making Android a major platform for application developers. That could be your own program running on all those devices. Getting started developing with Android is easy. You don't even need access to an Android phone, just a computer where you can install the Android SDK and the phone emulator that comes with it. Within minutes, "Hello, Android" will get you creating your first working Android's version of "Hello, World." From there, you'll build up a more substantial an Android Sudoku game. By gradually adding features to the game throughout the course of the book, you'll learn about many aspects of Android programming including user interfaces, multimedia, and the Android life cycle. If you're a busy developer who'd rather be coding than reading about coding, this book is for you. To help you find what you need to know fast, each chapter ends with "Fast forward" section. These sections provide guidance for where you should go next when you need to read the book out of order.
228 pages, Paperback
First published October 15, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
May 2, 2013
Based on Android 2 the book uses some deprecated functions, a more up-to-date book would be more suitable for new people.
The book reads well in most places and gives relatively good examples, it requires you to have a strong understanding of Java in the first place which is fine. However I did not appreciate the 'here is the example code' and then often being left alone. Although I was able to work out the code the implied knowledge is insufficient, I like to know precisely how things work and rather than this book providing the answers it either implies the answers or must be supplemented by other more in-depth material, most notably in my case I supplemented it with the Android developer website.
The book contains some useful tutorials and paints Android out to be easy, which is nice but once again because of the constant use of 'here is the sample code' then not explaining it, it felt like I wasn't learning anything new.
Although some little parts of the book was useful I am more inclined to recommend developers to use on-line resources, they're far more in-depth and usually more up-to-date, the Android developer website in-particular has a huge amount of material which can help developers.
The book reads well in most places and gives relatively good examples, it requires you to have a strong understanding of Java in the first place which is fine. However I did not appreciate the 'here is the example code' and then often being left alone. Although I was able to work out the code the implied knowledge is insufficient, I like to know precisely how things work and rather than this book providing the answers it either implies the answers or must be supplemented by other more in-depth material, most notably in my case I supplemented it with the Android developer website.
The book contains some useful tutorials and paints Android out to be easy, which is nice but once again because of the constant use of 'here is the sample code' then not explaining it, it felt like I wasn't learning anything new.
Although some little parts of the book was useful I am more inclined to recommend developers to use on-line resources, they're far more in-depth and usually more up-to-date, the Android developer website in-particular has a huge amount of material which can help developers.
August 23, 2010
i didn't complete this book, it is not bad (good introduction), puts you on the road fast, but the author ignores alot of important details to me, which made me much confused and lost, if you want a quick introduction read this book.
November 9, 2024
As a book for beginners, quite solid in my opinion. Even tho it's a book from 2015, content is not too old, there is a code on Kotlin! For myself, I haven't found anything special but still solid
On page 157, the author left quite a funny example screen picture, tho 😭🤣
On page 157, the author left quite a funny example screen picture, tho 😭🤣
August 29, 2011
This book has some valuable information in the grayed notes sections.
The first 2 or 3 chapters are also pretty good at describing the initial development set up within eclipse.
The issues that I had with the book included : (1) there appears to have been a Google mill for authors where they all cover the same topics, n the same manner, and devote themselves solely to highlighting the Google API functions such as location.
(2) There is a code error in chapter 2, which for me required going to the Google development site and looking at code examples in order to figure out how to make the code work. This same module is used in the next 3 or 4 chapters, so it is worthwhile fixing in order to work with the code samples. The error itself may represent a change in the way the API call was made, so it may not be the author's fault for failure at a later time than the book publication. However, after having made a fix, it is not clear exactly why the fix worked vs. what the initial reason for failure was.
(3) As the book progresses, the author simply throws out suggestions for things to try and suggests looking in the Google Android documentation to figure out haw to make changes or write new initial code. I thought some of the suggested changes would have been worthwhile as pursuits, but in the manner presented, the book became simply a suggestion launch site, and not a 'how to based tutorial'.
(4) the book is pretty severely out of date now, and due to the pace of Android change, it was probably out of date or incomplete upon publication.
The first 2 or 3 chapters are also pretty good at describing the initial development set up within eclipse.
The issues that I had with the book included : (1) there appears to have been a Google mill for authors where they all cover the same topics, n the same manner, and devote themselves solely to highlighting the Google API functions such as location.
(2) There is a code error in chapter 2, which for me required going to the Google development site and looking at code examples in order to figure out how to make the code work. This same module is used in the next 3 or 4 chapters, so it is worthwhile fixing in order to work with the code samples. The error itself may represent a change in the way the API call was made, so it may not be the author's fault for failure at a later time than the book publication. However, after having made a fix, it is not clear exactly why the fix worked vs. what the initial reason for failure was.
(3) As the book progresses, the author simply throws out suggestions for things to try and suggests looking in the Google Android documentation to figure out haw to make changes or write new initial code. I thought some of the suggested changes would have been worthwhile as pursuits, but in the manner presented, the book became simply a suggestion launch site, and not a 'how to based tutorial'.
(4) the book is pretty severely out of date now, and due to the pace of Android change, it was probably out of date or incomplete upon publication.
June 26, 2012
I know I could have probably worked a lot of this out online using Google's developer resources, but I reached that point where you don't want to be staring at a screen any longer and Ed did a great job of keeping me entertained and getting me through Android basics. The hardest part of the latter I found was the intent/activity architecture and that is covered early on with several fairly in-depth examples to get you to apply the principles in practice. I would say this book is now fairly dated with 4.0 the current version and the book only up to 2.2, but as a pleasant chatty read that guides you through the principles of Android development, this book was fine.
September 10, 2016
This book is a decent introduction to Android development using Eclipse. It includes the beginnings of a Sudoku program but unfortunatley does not include the code to complete the program, i.e. you can't generate new random easy, medium or difficult puzzles. It does introduce you to the basics of Android programming, and it is clearly written and easy to follow. Definitely buy the latest version of the book so it's current, or at least not too outdated, Eclipse and Android Development Tools are updated and modified regularly.
September 1, 2015
The author does an "incremental" approach to most activities, but he'll give you a lot of code, explain why you need half of it and it'll be over many pagesm so you have to finish the chapter before you can compile your "incremental" change and see what you've done. Even simple things like using strings/dimens at the beginning of the chapter aren't defined until the end of the chapter, meaning you have to skip ahead to be able to compile or just hope you entered all the code correctly at the end. Otherwise, the book offered a great introduction to Android and the content itself was wonderful.
July 10, 2010
Good basic overview of the Google SDK for developing Android applications on a smart phone. Really helped get started, with practical examples. Some samples were almost too superficial in their illustration of the code -- but, mostly he gives enough to get you going (and, you can't include every sample of the book would be 10,000 pages long).
Tracks the latest versions, was up to date and a good authority. An all around good place to start with Android.
Tracks the latest versions, was up to date and a good authority. An all around good place to start with Android.
December 30, 2011
Nice introduction to Android Platform, offering more hands-on-experience than laying down the theory in lecture-like style.
Covers the basic Android building blocks and demonstrates their usage in a concrete example. Continues to build on top of this example as you move further in the book, so in the end you have one complex program, rather than separate independent pieces of code.
Covers the basic Android building blocks and demonstrates their usage in a concrete example. Continues to build on top of this example as you move further in the book, so in the end you have one complex program, rather than separate independent pieces of code.
August 9, 2012
Buku soal Android yang saya baca pertama kali, dulu bacanya edisi pertama, tapi isinya nggak jauh beda sama edisi yang kedua ini :)
Buku yang bagus, kita dibawa belajar sambil seperti membaca cerita, tidak seperti buku teknik yang lain, contoh-contohnya juga berguna. Recommended untuk orang yang ingin belajar Android dari awal.
Buku yang bagus, kita dibawa belajar sambil seperti membaca cerita, tidak seperti buku teknik yang lain, contoh-contohnya juga berguna. Recommended untuk orang yang ingin belajar Android dari awal.
October 5, 2009
So far the book is good. He walks you through writing a Sodoku application. Instead of that I'm trying to write my own simple applications. The book is by no means a reference but so far it's a good gentle introduction. For what it's worth Google seems to have great online reference anyway.
June 13, 2011
Ottimo per iniziare la programmazione su Android. Per ogni argomento trattato ci sono chiari esempi di codice, e applicazioni effettivamente utili.<br />L'unico difetto è nel numero di pagine, per cui diversi argomenti sono solo accennati e non approfonditi.
August 27, 2010
Great book for a fast start with Android. Intended for absolute beginners.
Currently reading
November 4, 2010Very impressed with this book so far. That said I'm only starting.
January 27, 2011
Android rocks! And I'm learning the platform to make my own Smartphone apps.. its really exciting! This book will be read many times.
March 28, 2011
I checked out the O'Reilly Android book, and then found this one recommended highly on Amazon. Go with this book - the author is a much better writer, and he covers more material.
May 20, 2011
Penjelasan kode sudoku berhenti mendadak LOL
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April 13, 2011al
May 28, 2011
This is a good book for beginners to the Android platform.
October 18, 2011
I didn't finish this book. I read half of it than it was enough. Very very basic so it's perfect for beginners.
October 6, 2011
Good intro book if this is the first time you face with android.
June 27, 2013
knwleogy
August 15, 2013
Ed Burnette
September 2, 2014
Good, quick introduction to Android. Unfortunately today this book is terribly outdated and there is not a newer edition.
October 29, 2014
i want to read this book
April 27, 2015
Ed Burneet is amazing when it comes to teaching android developement.
It covers all the basics , including Intents , Webview and OpenGL Rendering.
An amazing books for noobs.
It covers all the basics , including Intents , Webview and OpenGL Rendering.
An amazing books for noobs.
June 13, 2015
Read 3rd edition from 2010, had trouble getting some of the examples to run. Mostly because they were old by software standards. Probably was a good book in 2010, can't recommend it in 2015.
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October 18, 2012i reed this for first time
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January 21, 2016DL027885 GG6
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May 1, 2016welldone book
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